Upright Piano solo: SDC, LDC or both?

G

GnnB

New member
Hi all, nice to be on the forums!

I'm looking to record an upright piano for a classical exam (video due to COVID). I might record more in the future, so I'm willing to invest a little. As far as equipment, I'm all set with a BabyFace pro (or Allen&Heath ZED 10 for more inputs), Logic and a bunch of plugins (NI mostly). But choosing mics is hard, especially since stores are closed over here.

I've read up, watched video's online and I think that (considering I can't do much room treatment), I'm gonna take off the panels and put two mics left and right and fiddle a bit with the position/distance etc. Now here's the catch. I see people do this with SDC mics and LDC mics, and even see some people with an LDC left and a SDC right. What would you recommend?

I've been looking at Røde mics, particularly:
  • NT5 matched pair for €279
  • NT1-A for €159 each (matched pair for €399)
  • NT1 for €227 each
  • NT55 matched pair for €599
Would you advise to get a NT5 MP with a NT1 and experiment with placement (added benefit, I could do vocals or other instruments too in the future), or invest more and get 2 NT55? Are there alternative brands I should consider in the same price range?

Budget is around €500, so the NT55 is reaching it already. need to get stands and cables too. I'd prefer flexibility, as I'm not experienced enough with recording to have strong preferences anyways. Mostly learning for now.
 
The news is perhaps not what you want to hear. Recording an upright is rarely something microphones in terms of make, model or even price, have in their control. The key to success is the instrument. One thing I have learned is that uprights are all so different. Removing the panels on one enables a better recording but on others - and quite a high proportion of others in my experience, produces a clunking, thumpy beast. The mechanism itself is between the strings and the mics, and taking your foot from the sustain pedal produces a boomy thud, that records really well. The thing also sits right where it's able to soak up the HF.

My best advice is to move the piano out into the room, so the soundboard is exposed, and perhaps even spin it through 180 degrees. Then spend hours finding the most useful place for the mics. I always start with just one mic, and find the place where it sounds the best. What you are looking for is the least amount of mechanical noise, and the cleanest, clearest tone that is balanced between left and right hand. I start facing the soundboard, and only if I cannot find the right places here, do I move to the players side. People often use SDC mics simply because they fit in the tight spaces where you discover the nicest sound. LDC mics are often coloured - their sound flattering some things and ruining others - they're also very good at capturing the clunks and thumps.

So - my advice would be to stick on a pair of ear sealing headphones, or even IEMs and find the right place for your instrument. Then you can add the other and explore the stereo field. In fairness, most success here is from the room - uprights with their hidden string side really have very little real width - so upright in a nice room is where the success comes from. On stage, it's different, for making them louder - open the lid and slap in a couple of SDCs and EQ the hell out of what you get.

I hate recording uprights - some are truly terrible things to record realistically.
 
Thanks! The piano is in a great shape, little noise. I'm limited in space (also, low ceiling), but I think I can pull the piano from the wall. At least turn it 90deg so I can mic the back.

I should not invest too much in the mics then.
 
Here's a comparison of AKG 414 and NT5s on an upright. I've seen several videos recording uprights this way. This certainly would be sufficient for an classical music exam.



I think you could do well with the NT5 matched pair. I probably would not go for the M5 set for piano. They are a bit light on the bottom. For the same price, I would probably use my AKG P170s. They have a bit more bottom end, closer to the 414 in this video.
 
Is the piano out of tune? Or are that phase issues?

I’ll get my hands on a pair of NT5 (and stands and cables). Thanks for the info!
 
With a piano setup like that, you will always have varying phase with a spaced pair of mics, depending on the note you are hitting. Phase differences are created by varied distances between sources. The rule of thumb has generally been a 3:1 ratio, ie: 1ft from the source and 3 ft between mics. That seems to minimize the effect.
The only way to eliminate that is a true x/y coincident pair.

As for the tuning, I have no idea. It was a video I found that showed both a possible recording technique, and one of the mics you were considering.
 
I'm firmly stuck in my opinion that uprights can benefit from dual mics, but to get balance and blend, not stereo - when you use two mics you just want a nice realistic sound. Recording a piano in a wonderful space, with a more distant perspective is nice - but in a room? Especially a small one - closer is better and simulate a bigger space. I know many people disagree with this, but a keyboard side recording of an upright has very little width, and even on the best instruments - the dampers and mechanics make close miking very tricky.
 
I'll try try to mic from the back to see if that works better. I can pull the piano away from the wall at 90deg, and into the room a bit, which is better in any case. I just hope that moving it won't detune the piano.
 
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